Board to seek $43M in capital spending

Updated 10:30 pm, Monday, January 23, 2012

STAMFORD -- The city's Planning Board has drafted a capital budget for fiscal year 2012-13 that calls for $43 million in spending through the sale of municipal bonds.

Board members arrived at the spending plan after whittling down $71 million worth of requests from city departments and nonprofit agencies.

If approved, the proposed $43 million budget would fund 78 public works projects ranging in cost from $50,000 for juvenile detention cells to more than $3 million of infrastructure improvements to a city school.

But cuts may be on the horizon. Though the Planning Board's figure is in line with the safe debt limit recommendation of $45 million the Pavia administration issued last month, the Board of Finance recently voted to lower the limit to $35 million.

As part of the annual capital budget process, the Planning Board is tasked with identifying spending priorities and delivering a budget to the mayor. However, prior to submitting its finalized capital budget recommendations, the board will take comments from residents at a public hearing scheduled for Feb. 7 at the Government Center.

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Among the larger projects that will require city financing next year are $3.5 million toward the long-awaited renovation of Dolan Middle School, $3 million toward upgrades to the Government Center and $2.4 million toward city street repairs.

The mayor has until early March to submit an overall budget that includes operating expenses to the Board of Finance. Both the Board of Finance as well as the Board of Representatives have the power to make further cuts before approving the city's final budget.

Last year, the Planning Board proposed a $39 million capital budget that was trimmed to $20 million by Pavia and later finalized by the Board of Representatives.

Pavia's conservative budget was in large part due to a decision by the Board of Finance in 2010 to move toward a project-based system of municipal bonding. The practice requires that bond proceeds must be spent on a specific list of approved capital projects rather than on a "first-come-first-served" basis that is employed with a cash-flow method. As a result, spending on new capital projects was hampered as administration officials worked to resolve a backlog of authorized but unfinished projects.

Recently, Peter Privitera, the director of the city's office of policy and management, requested that the Board of Finance revert to a cash flow method, arguing in a memo that it makes more sense given the large number of capital projects in Stamford and it will "provide project managers with more flexibility to move quickly on projects that are shovel ready."

On Thursday, Privitera said he ultimately plans to transition back to project-based bonding after the backlog of unfinished projects is cleared.

"We're going to get to project specific inevitably," he said. "Probably within three years we'll be at project specific bonding. Ultimately it's better because ... when we issue bonds for a year we know exactly what projects they're being issued for."

The Board of Finance has yet to approve the plan.

Staff Writer Kate King contributed to this report. Staff Writer Elizabeth Kim can be reached at elizabeth.kim@scni.com or 203-964-2265.